During my first play-though of Universal Paperclips, I came to the realization that I was a industrial monster. What first struck me upon entering the web address was the sheer simplicity of the play area. The entirety of the site was reduced to numbers and simple text commands. With nothing resembling an intentional graphic in sight, the game's layout resembled more of an excel spreadsheet than any kind of flashy graphics-loaded display. Gameplay consisted of clicking on an action box, often several consecutive times, with the end goal of expanding your paperclips empire. In the absence of color, all action boxes are reduced to a color gradient between black and white, representing the binary choices available to the player. The two choices are: seek industrial advancement that is immediately apparent, or seek industrial advancement that is delayed but promises greater profit. The absence of any graphical component robs the game of any sentiment and tone. The player is reduced to a mindless automaton that, despite the game having a complementary narrative that describes total arcs with one-lined summations, can only care about the big number at the top of the page. Indeed it's the number most prominently displayed. There is no number of Paperclips the game mentions to be the winning amount. Simply accumulating more paperclips is enough to inspire the player to continue playing. There is no objective number of paperclips in mind, save "how many paperclips can I obtain before I have to go to class?" This is reminiscent of the critique of capitalism, where individuals find no satisfaction in a set amount of profit, but instead are dead-set in acquiring as much as possible.
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Interesting—I agree with your analysis that the simplicity of the game's interface causes the player to zero in on profits and rate of production. Another way to read this design choice could be as a exploration of AI development. The interface in the beginning is very easy to understand and easy to manage, but later resources and upgrades will appear with little explanation of what they do. As some parts of the production process become more automated and faster-paced, the player loses their sense of control. This loss of control occurs slowly—for example, the first purchase to earn trust is for the AI to find a cure for male pattern baldness, which seems fairly harmless, but the tasks become more…
I think that it's interesting that you found the game to be quite symbolic of capitalism. I took the game as leaning heavily towards a critique of the nature of optimization, especially that which is often found within automated systems. While capitalism as a concept is also quite related to optimization, I found that the lack of monetary or even utilitarian goals past stage 1 of the game to somewhat drive me away from seeing Universal Paperclips as a direct critique of capitalism. Although, it does seem to describe a general sense of impersonality inherent in rote optimization, and by extension, inherent in pure capitalism.
Personally, I think this game would be more symbolic of capitalism if it provided a mechanism for turning your paperclips into money/wealth. Having millions of paperclips alone won't make you rich; you need a way to sell them. I think if this game really wanted to critique capitalism, it would be better off having you attempt to create/gain a more valuable item than paperclips, like diamonds.